POST HURRICANE IKE

(I am posting this from my office. My classes have been cancelled until 09/22, possibly longer. We do NOT have electricity at home and as a result, do NOT have internet service. Also, cell phone service is SKETCHY at best. We occasionally get a voice mail or text message through.)

We survived. That's about all I have to say. Not really, we were very blessed. We had minor leaking in the kitchen. We haven't investigated the roof or attic yet but we hope it's mostly a result of the high winds and not roof damage. Thankfully, the dripping occurred on our tiled floor and we didn't have carpet damage. Although, most of you know that I'd love to have an excuse to rip out the ugly carpet. Never-the-less... We lost our electricity in the early morning hours Saturday September 13th. We've heard that it will be 2 to 4 WEEKS before it's restored. I've heard the dates 25th and 29th whispered about. Nothing is certain though, so we're hoping it'll be sooner rather than later. It's been 5 days and we're ready for the luxury of electricity.

Our neighbors have all been bringing food together and preparing dinner together in the evenings. It's been a great opportunity to get to know our neighbors better. We did breakfast together for a few days but people have been going back to work and we're down to group dinners. The neighbor who's driveway we've been congregating in commented last night that it was beginning to feel normal to have 30 people over for group dinners. He's right. We've enjoyed the huge family atmosphere. Everyone has a couple of dogs too that run loose together.

On Monday night a co-worker of David's passed through town and delivered a tiny generator from OK. He wasn't able to pick one up in KS and had a hard time finding them in OK because all generators have been shipped to TX, but there aren't any here either. The little 1000 watt generator is enough to run the refrigerator and a box fan but that's about it. Some of our neighbors have HUGE generators and are running lights and TV's like there's no tomorrow.

Ice was impossible to get for the first several days. We were able to purchase ice at a grocery store on Monday afternoon but by then most of our frozen and refrigerated food had spoiled despite our best attempts. We split the ice we were able to get with our neighbors and everyone got out and went to get more. The stores get deliveries at 7am and it's gone by the afternoon, even now. There are supposed to be FEMA PODS (Point of Deliveries) around here but we've yet to find one.

Gas has been difficult to come by. David left at 6am yesterday morning and waited in line to get gas. He got home at 8:30am. As different areas get the electricity back we expect to have less of a problem obtaining gas.

Most of the Houston area is under a curfew. Some are dusk to dawn. Ours is 11p-6a. It's to help with keeping the vandalism and scavenging down.

It's been a long few days but on Sunday night a cold front blew through and the temperature has been comfortable since early Monday morning. Hopefully the cool breezes will continue through the power outage.

I should probably wrap this up and get back to work but please keep in mind if we aren't able to respond to emails or phone calls it's beyond our control. I expect to be in the office through the end of the week but have limited time to do personal business as we're running on a short staff.